Unfinished Buiness
by ChickRockGuitar
Summary: Twenty five years after his friend was taken from him, Joshua Slayter is passing though LA on yet another lead as to the whereabouts of the vampire who murdered her.


**. Title:** Unfinished Business  
**. Author:** Alex Gregg (aka: ChickRockGuitar)  
**. Date Written:** October 2003 - (words written: 963)  
**. Fiction Group:** Buffy The Vampire Slayer/Angel  
**. Story Rating:** UK: 12 / USA: PG-13 (violence)  
**. Summary Of Story:** Twenty five years after his friend was taken from him, Joshua Slayter is passing though LA on yet another lead as to the whereabouts of the vampire who murdered her.  
**. Disclaimer:** Joss's vampire concepts, the original Nikki/Spike storyline, existing Buffy/Angel characters credit to Joss & Co. Character of Slayter/Story idea credit to me.

_Night fell over Los Angeles – the City of Angels. Although the darkened skies looked heavy and black, the city itself was lit up by light from offices, apartments, street lamps and the occasional store that stayed open late. _

_Joshua Slayter was tall, over six feet. He was slim, almost lanky-looking to the eye. He had short black hair, slightly greying in places and was in his mid forties. He had been in L.A only a few days, and was just planning on passing through while taking care of some unfinished business. He could feel that this city was 'wrong.' It is often said that Los Angeles, the home of the stars is fake, but the 'fakeness' of this city was not the thing that was standing out to him. He knew what this 'wrongness' was. Los Angeles, like New York was a breeding ground for the supernatural. Come nightfall vampires and demons ruled the run-down dark back ally streets of the city._

_As he walked he wondered why the citizens of L.A turned a blind eye to the danger that surrounded them. Then he remembered the words his old friend had once said. "People tend to rationalize what they can explain and forget what they can't" Yes. He'd seen that happen. His past friend had been Nikki Wood - The Vampire Slayer._

_Joshua buttoned up his long winter coat as he felt a slight Californian chill go through him. He thought of Nikki. She had been a beautiful young African-American woman. Her dark brown eyes always sparkled, and she always kept her short curly-back hair clean and tidy. Being chosen as the next Vampire Slayer, he thought, was a burden Nikki should never have had to bare. It had ultimately cost the young woman her life, as it did with all Slayers before her, and those to come now she was gone. Joshua knew how it worked. Nikki had told him. "For as long as there has been vampires, there has been the Slayer. One girl in all the world, a chosen one. One born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. And she alone will stand and fight the forces of darkness."_

_Nikki had died at the hands of a vampire. Joshua had not been there, but he knew the facts. There had been a vicious fight in the Manhattan Subway. The monster had snapped her neck as if it had been a twig. Nikki had so much to live for, she was only in her early twenties and had a four-year-old son called Robin. Joshua knew that death came early to all Slayers, as did Nikki. She had once told him that the current record was only twenty-nine. That made Joshua feel sick. Being called as the next Slayer was like the 'powers-that-be' signing a death warrant. Joshua often thought about Robin. Nikki had been a single mother, and after she died, Bernard Crowley her Watcher had retired, taking in the boy to raise him. Joshua wondered where Robin was now. He would be coming up to, if not already thirty. Joshua had once wanted to take the boy in and raise him himself, but Crowley wouldn't hear of it._

_Bernard Crowley was British, and way too old and stuffy for Joshua to get along with. Crowley's job was to train Nikki to fight the vampires and to guide her in doing so, but as all Watchers do, they invariably caused their Slayers to get killed in the line of duty. That was Joshua's opinion anyway._

_Joshua pushed back his memories of Nikki and thought about the business at hand. He was here in L.A on a lead. The lead, given to him by a well-known snitch back in New York, was that a questionable law firm in L.A was supposed to have information on the whereabouts of the Vampire who had killed Nikki. Joshua had always sworn that he would find the monster who'd taken her from him, and he would make it pay. So it was to the law firm of Wolfram & Heart that was he was now headed._

_Suddenly something sprung out at him, and sent him sailing to the ground. He knew what that something was; a vampire, he quickly picked himself up and turned to face his attacker. They traded blows for a few minutes before Joshua got the upper hand. Joshua was a strong guy, he didn't have the strength of his opponent, but somehow grabbed hold of the un-dead creature and flung it across the alley. The vampire landed amongst the dustbins, sending them crashing noisily to the ground. Now that the vampire was down, Joshua rushed at him, pulling punches from all angles. "Take, that, you, blood,sucker!" he said, throwing a punch for every word, then thrust his wooden stake deep into its un-beating heart. "That's for Nikki!" he said as the vampire exploded into a cloud of dust._

_That was his what - fiftieth - sixtieth kill? He didn't know anymore. In twenty-five years of hunting them, he'd forgotten long ago. He often wondered how he'd survived this long. 'Got the easy ones' he figured._

_He stood there in thought for a moment, the cold night breeze biting at him, then continued his way through the city to Wolfram & Heart's offices. Apparently, so he was told, they never closed the building. As he walked, he wondered if this lead would come up trumps. Would it be any different from the hundreds he'd had over the years? God, he hoped so, but he knew that if it wasn't he would keep trying. He had sworn to find Nikki's killer. And he would never give up. Never._

**That's It. Hope you enjoyed the story.**


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